There was a burst of hope this morning that after many repeated false starts, Theresa May and JC Juncker would finally announce a Brexit deal on Monday. Alas it was not meant to be and after a brief conference between the two leaders, we learned that despite progress, a Brexit deal "was not possible today."

According to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, "it was the DUP call that sunk today's chances of a deal - Foster held her press conf, 20 mins later May leaves talks with Juncker to call her, goes back into the room and the deal is off."

However it was another BBC reporter, Katya Adler, that had the best summary of today's events: "No-one knows what’s going on now, one EU diplomat told me"

What we do know is that despite the lack of a deal, hope remains and speaking after talks between the UK and the European Commission’s negotiators, Jean-Claude Juncker said: “Despite our best effort and a significant effort, it was not possible to reach a complete agreement today” adding that "this is not a failure, this is the start of the very next round."

Juncker added that “we now have a common understanding on most relevant issues, with just two or three open for discussion. This will require further consultation, further negotiation and further discussion,” and that "we were narrowing our positions to a huge extent today thanks to the British prime minister, thanks to the willingness of the European Commission to have a fair deal with Britain."

In her first public press statement in Brussels alongside Juncker since the start of Brexit talks nine months ago, May chimed in: “I am confident we will conclude this positively" adding that “on a couple of issues, some issues remain which will require further negotiation and consultations. We will reconvene before the end of this week."

As reported earlier, talks had come unstuck over the Northern Irish border in recent weeks. Earlier in the day after government sources in Dublin said London had agreed to keep Northern Ireland “aligned” to EU regulations to avoid a “hard border” with the Irish Republic. Word of that sent the pound higher on hopes of rapid trade talks but according to Reuters, provoked an angry response from May’s allies in Northern Ireland, demanding equal treatment with the rest of the United Kingdom.

Underlining the conundrums of Brexit, the idea of Northern Ireland remaining closely linked to the EU single market prompted speculation that, to avoid new barriers between Belfast and London, the British mainland would have to follow suit.

The leaders of Scotland and London, which voted against Brexit, demanded they be allowed the same EU relationship as Northern Ireland. Yet May has ruled out such differentiated treatment or staying in a customs union or the single market.

* * *

So where do we stand after today's chaos? Well, Juncker said that he is “very confident” the Brexit negotiations will achieve a breakthrough this week: “I’m very confident that we’ll reach an agreement in the course of this week,” the Commission president told reporters after his meeting with May.

“We now have a common understanding on most relevant issues, with just two or three open for discussion,” Juncker concluded.

The markets have taken Juncker's optimism in stride: after sliding to day lows following news of the no deal, cable has recovered half the loss, and was last trading around 1.347.

"No-one knows what’s going on now, one EU diplomat told me"So basically it's business as usual in the EUSSR. Deadlines come, deadlines go, and in the end some watered down compromise will be presented.

stupid? never wrote so, never would mean such
it's a thing full of details, many of them near expert level, that is. "homework required", if you prefer
a blog comment can't cover ever enough, even willing
see my comment this morning. ZH called it a deal (see GBP), I hinted:

Personally, I'd like to see Trump start pulling NATO troops, equipment and bases from all european territories, except those which support the US and limit refugees (Poland, Austria, Hungary, etc). Maybe hint a fair BREXIT deal might change my mind.

Yep but the population are realising they have been sold out big time.No BREXIT, parliament selling the population into EU slavery and tyranny.As for voting I no longer vote to give consensus to the EU puppet government sitting in parliament.All of it is bullshit to turn us all into EU slaves by consent.

If only it was that simple. You see, without a ransom, I mean "agreement", Britain is locked out from selling it's goods and services to EU member states. The EU is Britain's largest trading partner, so it matters. This is the mechanism that will ultimately keep Britain in the EU, as they will just say the costs of leaving is too high and remain. Did you really believe a silly little thing like a popular referendum would be the catalyst for the break-up of the EU? They are not going to allow that to happen. Seems allot of people didn't read the fine print when they signed their country's membership contract.

I'm not so sure. There are a lot of things the UK didn't allow Europe to expand - military for one. Once the UK is out, they can get on with their proper empire building, with lots of lovely tanks and uniforms fortheir parades. However, it would be nice to get the UK to pay for it all, so I believe they want the UK to leave, but be tied in to an agreement whereby they pay as much, if not more than before, but with no say on how the EU works. Big win all round.

"They are not going to allow that to happen."Wrong ! They jumb on the occasion to see the UK leave. Everyone is dead tired of trying to satisfy UK's demands and obstructions for European integration. Finally, they leave all by themselves. Try to come back and you will see the mood.

You might also mention what will happen when "external" borders are built between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland... there are some people around who think there should not be "external" borders on the island of Ireland. And sooner or later will do interesting things to make sure that any such borders are demolished.

junker admitted that may is a tough negotiator ... what did she say at the beggining "a bloodie women" ... well, i guess close enough. DOes this mean may won? i seriously doubt it. UK will be thrown through the mud and if anything this should show you how important at a stage we are now ... UK served as a center for about few hunderds years to say the least with all that East British India company, british empire etc. ... now the mask is coming off ...

Juncker just tried to help May by calling her "tough", before she went back to London where some in her Cabinet will call her weak and a bad negotiator. She might have asked him to say it!In fact there is not much to negotiate at this stage. What Juncker and the EU in general are waiting for is for May to accept the EU demands in the three areas: payments, EU citizens rights and the border question in Ireland. It has taken a year to come to the point where they are now. The real negotiations come later and concerns the trade agreement unless the UK changes strategy for "Brexit" and stays in the Custom Union and the Internal Market.

They want to punish the UK, but they also want the money for the future to be paid.The real crime here is that we obviously have politicians here who believe that tens of billions of pounds more spent on the EU is money well spent, they have no idea.Just noticed the comment about the DUP. Guessing here that Theresa May offered to throw Northern Ireland under the bus by setting up borders against it inside the UK and the DUP told her where to shove it, that would be the typical form of most of the cretins we have had in government the last 50 years who are prepared to sell their own people out for a few more shekels.

The DUP is a protestant unionist party in NI... they see the proposed deal as a step towards a "united Ireland" .... & as they are propping up Mays government, they effectively have a veto... Edit...("Unionist" means the union of Northern Ireland & Britain... NOT United Ireland)

("Unionist" means the union of Northern Ireland & Britain... NOT United Ireland)Thanks for the fine detail here... and I was thinking the DUP would be supporting the Union in its fight against Slavery and the Confederation.

they are all pawns my man ... in all fairness this women may seems to be a different cloth (but she got there by accident), in any case they own the whole system, so it does not make a difference - they will achieve what they decided (UK is gone btw - it will take a couple of years to become apparent though) ... in the meantime lets cheer for blue and red teams and whatever we got locally

Just say fuck this shit and walk away are you serious? You're talking about welshing on huge commitments and UK would never get any kind of deal with anybody ever again. Hey you can try this at home tell visa card you ain't paying that 50k, see what happens next.

That's not really the issue.What's more of a problem about fucking off and going to WTI rules is that Britain doesn't have the infrastructure to process immigrants, trade tariffs etc. That would require superhuman / impossible implementation skills before Mar 2019 and cost a bloody fortune. The EU knows that UK can't credibly walk away even if it wanted to. David Cameron should have prepared for a no deal scenario but in his arrogance thought he was going to win.And guess which is the *only* other country in the world that runs solely on WTI rules.....yes, you smart people: that trailblazer, the Islamic Republic of Mauretania (capital: Nouakchott). Britain has the best template possible to base itself on. I was a Brexiteer but those Tory bastards have fucked the whole thing up.

UK will follow the path of Greece through corrupt politicians.I smile though, the EU is still fucked because the same % losses they will keep making YOY and no ECB can turn that around.With that other nations will fall into the same position in time.

The issue for us in Southern Ireland is.... where is the gate ?? And PLEASE dont say "why doesnt Eire leave too"....The Republic of Ireland is caught between a rock & a hard place as UK & EU battle it out... we will lose either way... & why da fuck should we.. ???There are still dissident republicans & unionists who would LOVE to see a return of a border between north & south (gun-running & smuggling etc.)... that can NOT be allowed to happen.... So... lets treat the Island of Ireland as EU with border control via the Irish Sea... simple ?? Apparently not....DUP vetoes it....

"No-one knows what’s going on now, [fill in space] told me"Fill in space with a the position or name of a government official. All these information sources are good for is collecting a salary and avoiding any work that involves brainpower. For these guys, party time.

this can only mean a 100 billion settlement over ten years.the tories have sold out the country with its own money and taxes for years to come with a spike in interest owing and even more pain than the 42 billion of interest on 2 trillion of debt urrently being paid.

just pull the plug. There is no need for any negotiations.Would be fun to se junkers faceexpression with his pants down.Even more fun to watch the entire bankingsystem fall apart and EU come to a standstill. Hang the traitors and start from scratch.Maybe we should wait another year to fully develop blockchain tech first? Ah fack it, lets go back to gold.

When eastern europe revolted and broke with the USSR the soviets thought they would be begging to come back to them in a few years. Because what did Poland have to offer they just made shoes for the USSR. A few month later the soviets found out how important those shoes were. When winter set in and new shoes werent availible to children who had out grown their old shoes. The entire USSR fell apart largely because of that lack of shoes pushing the population past the breaking point.The EU is repeating that mistake.

Trade deal does not have to change, UK has always championned "free trade" anyway, it is ridiculous to think they are going to change.The modulous upon which UK wil based its relations wrt to EU or EU countries as single entities is to change. Reall the show "prime minister" was right on the money decades ago on the matter of UK entering the EU, theey did on their own choice, following their own rules, paying pretty much nothing, staying out of schengen etc. and when the whole matter has rotten... they are the first out.Both UK and EU try to make things smooth, but the ones that are at risks are the ones in EU. UK has its currency, is not part of shengen, etc.The same media that spouting BS on Trump (no matter your pov on him and his government actions MSM spout plain BS about it) are spouting B to make EU look a sthe top dog here with a Thereasa May that is in a weak spot. UK is in the strong position, they are the first out, beat Germany to it (which might have wantted to exit along some eastern countries it ses as slave/cheap work pool). The eastern Europe countries are scared from Russia (especially Poland) and they are scared from Germany crazy policies (backed sadly by France). They already partly turned their back to Germany aka the "three seas deal" Trump manage to pull: a huge blow to failed EU oligarchs that is mostly never mentioned in western media.France and Germany are in weak spot hence the talk about a defense deal. UK moved first, eastern Europe countries have been quick into opening theirs option and it is obvious as they now can say fuck to those fuckers /EU oligarchs that used to treat them as shit (obvious when you see openly defiant they are now ith Macron and some others EU leaders).